About Westside Value Laundromat:
An arts, literacy & resources based mini community center that
functions out of a vibrant, Burmese refugee owned laundromat on
Buffalo's West Side.

Mission:
The WASH Project @ Westside Value Laundromat establishes a place to
create and engage in art, music, culture and literacy, while doing your
laundry. The WASH Project has become a safe, small, yet dynamic center
of local community life, a place that people of all ages & walks of
life come to; a place, that by the way it is designed & the way it
is operated, strengthens its neighborhood by investing in the arts and
community, while providing a model for future WASH Project efforts in
neighborhood laundromats throughout the city.

Enter the WASH Project (Westside
Art Strategy Happenings) at Westside Value Laundromat – funded by
grants from the Belle Center and Buffalo Americorps, along with
community-driven help by Houghton College. The laundromat is now a
place where people can come to play music, practice art, read books,
learn languages, mingle with people from other cultures, and learn
about a wide range of community services and cultural opportunities. Oh
yeah, and wash clothing, which makes it sustainable. In essence, The
WASH Project is a cultural hub for the neighborhood, and guess what
else? This is the first project of this sort to pop up in the city, but
the plan is to replicate this idea in the future. Brilliant!

It just so happens that the figureheads behind the operation are Zaw
Win and Barrett Gordon. Zaw is Burmese and is the owner of the
laundromat. Barrett is a librarian who is also an artist, organizer and
promotes information literacy and visual literacy.

"The mural was painted by artist Nick Miller,
who was given permission by the owner of the building to create a
remembrance of the the Burmese repression of August 8-12, 1988
(8-8-88). Also known as the 8888 Uprising, the fighting peacock
became the insignia of the All-Burma Students Union, which helped to
organize nationwide demonstrations.